"...the lady on the left is my mother, who's 100 and an avid user of Awakening."

Comments by Rob Hardwicke, president and product master at Awakening Mineral Therapies.

All kidding aside about what the Financial Times did or did not know, FT.com, the Times’ web edition, came out just recently with an excellent article, “Dead Sea Brings Life to Skincare”, on the ascendancy of Dead Sea minerals in the world of natural skin care. The article observed that new formulators recently have entered the market pioneered by Ahava nearly 20 years ago. The industry newcomers include Butai Cosmetics (at the expensive luxury market end) and Yes to Carrots (at the mass market end).

There always has been a fairly extensive list of Dead Sea skin care manufacturers. Some have done it right; some haven’t. Some use the minerals in concentration (Ahava and Awakening); some prefer to use simply “Dead Sea water” (Yes to Carrots). Some manufacturers use whatever olus (the medium that holds the overall formulation together — some call it the formulation’s glue) that will hold the products’ price points at the lowest possible level (while rather conveniently holding the products’ profit margins at the highest). The cheapest olus typically is “mineral oil“, and I suspect that you, the reader, would be surprised (or more likely ‘aghast’) at how many very well-respected cosmetic and skin care brands use this stuff.

It seems that “mineral” anything is increasingly hot in today’s personal care market. Well, almost. While ‘mineral oil’ does indeed contain the word ‘mineral’, it is about as effective as pumping out your swimming pool with an eye-dropper when it comes to its healing efficacy. ‘Efficacy’ is a term often used in our industry to describe a product’s ‘health-giving’ properties; the greater the efficacy of a product, the more healing and health-giving it will be. For a pneumonia patient, the efficacy of antibiotics is greater than the efficacy of being blend with leeches by a barber. Baby oil makes an infant smell nice, but its efficacy for repairing irritated skin is low. Our Awakening BODY&MASSAGE natural mineral lotion’s efficacy is high in that it addresses any irritation head-on (and also smells nice, thanks to the biblical wildflower, the Rose of Sharon).

The hallmark of our Awakening formulations derives from the success of our efforts ten years ago to isolate those Dead Sea minerals we feel convey the highest efficacy rating to every product we make. In our industry, we aim to allow minerals that are applied topically to end up doing good things for the dermis. ‘Topically’ means that the minerals are applied to the surface of the skin, and from there they transfer into the layers of the skin, the dermis. While topical applications of minerals are just dandy for the dermis, they don’t do much at all for the body as a whole. In other words, applying a potassium-rich cream to the skin is a lousy way for a person low in potassium to correct that deficiency.

On the other hand, a person who’s been placed on a low-potassium diet by their physician needn’t worry that a potassium-rich cream like Awakening will aggravate their blood pressure or heart condition. The size of mineral molecules typically determines what gets absorbed through the skin (let alone throughout the body). Mineral molecules naturally are big. Efforts by a number of major, international formulators have focused on particles that are infinitesimal, the so-called ‘nano’ technologies. But the web is loaded with blogs and sites that assert the dire consequences of micro-fine stuff mucking up the body’s inner workings.

Rather like Goldilocks determining which of the 3 bears’ porridges was ‘just right’ for her, we’ve spent time evaluating which forms of minerals are best-suited for you (or y’all, when I’m in Alabama) — or for me. We call this general realm of skin care technology at Awakening our Mineral Hydration Factor. Whatever we’ve done, it’s working because more and more folks are findin’, tryin’ — and then lovin’ — Awakening products. They’re ‘just right’.

Old or young. Male or female. Big or small. Carnivore or Vegan. Awakening natural mineral skin care products are just right in that they hydrate & heal in effective and very pleasant ways. And, what’s more, they are pro-active in terms of helping to maintain skin health into one’s future — what we call a skin health maintenance regimen. Of course, 2-year old toddlers aren’t particularly concerned about anti-wrinkle, anti-aging and antioxidants, but the sooner that someone starts thinkingly taking care of skin health, the better they’ll be (and look) at 100 [the wrinkle-free image of the lady on the left in the photo above is my Mom, a centenarian who celebrated her 100th b.d. a few months ago. Since we don’t test on animals here at Awakening, we tend to test on our mothers, brothers and others — obviously with good results].

Mr. David Kaufman, the journalist for the Financial Times who wrote the very excellent article to which I refer in this blog posting, hit the nail on the head in commenting about the Dead Sea mineral sector of Israel’s cosmetics industry: “This may seem like an industry in its infancy compared to the dominant international players, but the sector’s sheer determination is impressive considering Israel’s tiny size and modest population.” While Awakening is mostly what you’d call a California corporation, we do hand craft every single one of our products in small batches at our lab in Israel, and we, too, are both tiny and possessing of sheer determination to make the very best, natural, organic, vegan mineral skin care products on the planet. And while David Kaufman missed referring to us in his article, we’ve become accustomed to being overlooked by the big guys in our 14 years of operations. Just goes to show the power of word-of-mouth-chitchat when one or two people stumble across a true ‘find’ like Awakening and then tell others!

I have tried several of the Awakening Skin Care products and have been more than pleased with each one. I wouldn't want to be without my Awakening Hands or Feet! My grown sons and my husband are using the products too–my daughters-in-law and I can't keep them out of it.

I discovered Awakening's products just in the last 6 months or so. It is the first and only product I've found in many years of searching that has had a beneficial effect on my exzema. I love the scent too. Thanks, Awakening!

Thanks, Trenton, for the kind words. We're working on a cleanser, but it's a little ways down on our R&D list. Next up will be a countertop pump dispenser of Awakening HANDS, a travel kit of individual FACE&NECK packets, and a new Awakening SUGARLIPS lip balm that will be the only totally preservative-free squeezable (emphasis on the 'squeezable') lip lotion/balm on the market. –Rob

Just want to introduce myself: I’m Rob Hardwicke, the President and Product Master of Awakening Skin Care. The goal of this blog is to be a participatory voice on issues that affect us all when it comes to skin care.
All of us have skin (a profound observation!). All of us are living longer and longer (or at least some of us). Therefore, since we’ll be occupying this skin of ours for a good many years, we might as well make the most of it. This means taking care of our skin. READ MORE ABOUT ROB HARDWICKE